Pages 284-286
Our Sick Planet
We have all heard of
the environmental challenges taking place in our world. They are happening
whether we know it or not. We cannot argue with nature. Our planet is dying
because it cannot support the population we are throwing at it. There is a
scientific concept called carrying capacity. This is a maximum number of a
species that a given environment can support. Once this capacity is reached,
naturally the species must decrease it numbers in order to thrive in the
environment and not cause serious damage.
Many scientists
believe that the human population is near to or has reached its carrying
capacity. We are overpopulating the Earth. We talk of fossils fuels and other
dying resources. We are using up all we have. We are running out. We have no
where else to go.
When reading the
Economix book, I noticed two pages in particularly that hit me hard. Pages 284
and 285 contains a map of the world showing the how we are negatively effecting
the world. Phrases such as "Dead Zone," "Forests cut down,"
"Plastic Soup," and multiple bodies of water drying up linger on the
page in an effect to prove our destruction of the Earth. Years and years ago
these we unthinkable things and here we are.
The next page of the
book follows by saying "It's clearly too late to stop these problems from
happening. However, it might not be too late to stop problems that are
unthinkable today." We can stop
further problems from happening. We can control out population so we do not
overuse the Earth. How we do this all I do not know. That's what we need to
discuss as a species.
Hi! I really like your post, and completely agree that we need to think critically about how we treat our planet and its resources. I also think that we need to be super careful when discussing population control, because in the past those conversations were usually code for eugenics. I think that controlling consumption has much greater possibilities than controlling population growth, because it's something we can practice on an individual level, as well on a much bigger scale by, for example, holding corporations accountable for violating environmental regulations and other similar practices.
ReplyDeleteThis post grabbed my attention because the environment is something that is so incredibly important to talk about. The hard thing about the climate debate is that "large" effects that would raise concern for those who do not care about the environment have not yet occurred and may not even happen in our lifetime, however that does not mean that substantial permanent destructive impacts are not currently being made. Unfortunately the government and largely the source of our environment's protection is being controlled by those who do not believe their capitalistic values have any negative impacts on our Earth, despite the warnings.
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